The Red Sox-Dodgers monster trade has been called many things: huge, amazing, expensive, ridiculous… the superlatives don’t end.

Matt Sullivan at Over The Monster has written about what he calls the “incredible improbability” of the deal, and details all the steps that had to happen for this trade to come down, from Frank McCourt’s bankruptcy, forcing MLB to take control of the Dodgers, leading to the delayed sale of the team, the Dodgers’ early overachievement and Red Sox’ underperformance, the needs of both teams and even a seemingly unrelated development: the Joey Votto mega-contract.

He concludes:

This trade is a big win for the Boston Red Sox as they gain both financial flexibility and some intriguing young players. For the Dodgers it is a big risk, but it is a calculated one, meant to excite the fan base and fill in gaps in talent on the major league team right now and in the immediate future.

That sounds about right. It could work for both sides, and only because all the above factors aligned, it happened. We might never see something like this in baseball again.